Globonomics!

Watch this space closely as I collate information and present an analysis on this shortly. Someone left a feedback for me that I was totally deviating from the primary objective of this blog – Economics and Finance and I think their point is indeed valid. I have been all over the place again. I need to refocus my priorities on this blog’s original objective with which it was setup 3 years ago and that is to concentrate on Economics and Finance.

Just look at the competition in this field:

1. amazon.com kindle e-book reader

2. Barnes and Noble Nook e-book reader

3. iRex, (a Royal Philips spin-off in 2005) e-book reader

4. PlasticLogic e-book reader

5. Sony e-book reader

and many more!

This will be an interesting analysis.

amazon.com kindle2 (India)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/26/amazon-kindle-2-review/

amazon.com listened to me as I prayed for an International version of the kindle as Jeff Bezos wrote what sounded like music to my ears (rather what looked like a treat to my eye – since I was looking at the screen as I read it!)

This is not the first time that such customer centric companies such as Google, Apple, amazon.com have listened to our concerns and addressed them!

I had blogged earlier here, here and here on how and why the amazon.com kindle is not available for purchase in India and who it’s competitors were and what were the tricks of the trade one had to adopt to lay one’s hands on one of them albeit with access to less than half the features. Now we have ALL the features PLUS an affordable kindle almost at our fingertips! How cool can it get?

I did some quick checks and here are some bare facts before we start counting the chicken before they hatch: Read the rest of this entry »

The exterior of an India Post office

Update: 8th September 2009

Today’s papers carried the news of Accenture being awarded the contract to operationalize and install a single software in all branches of India Post. India Post also says they have 9000 vacancies that would be filled by youngsters. Furthermore, India Post’s GPO at Bangalore has a brand new look and they have almost 4 planes catering to their needs.

Let’s see the net effect this would have on the financial equation of India Post this time next year when we do the revenue-cost analysis again.

http://ecofin.wordpress.com/2007/06/11/india-post-the-road-to-recovery-2/

I had written about this some years back on the road to recovery for the India Post and the efforts they are making in creating a new brand image. I had also written on how they compare with their US counterpart – the USPS. Coincidentally, I read up an article on the progress made by the USPS recently and even they are ailing due to the current economic recession in the US and are set to post a whopping $ 7 billion loss for the fiscal year.

Source: http://www.indiapost.gov.in/Report/Annual_Report_2008-2009.pdf

Source: http://www.usps.com/

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a long time since I blogged about this endeavor I have undertaken.

I have to say that I found this course more demanding than what I envisaged. I had to postpone taking up my examinations to Jan 2010 due to time constraints I faced in balancing both my studies at NLSIU and my work schedule that has become hectic. I had 4 papers and 1 viva voce that I will take up in January 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

He is the ultimate modern tech savvy Blackberry wielding Mr President of the United States of America. For once, I see genuine hope in the way the US will go about sorting out its financial mess and it’s foreign policies.

Checkout: http://www.whitehouse.gov

As with most Americans and millions from other countries and their citizens, I did not miss his swearing-in ceremony that was held in Washington DC on 20th January 2009 on television – that marked a new era in world history!

Good luck – President Obama. May god be with you in all your endeavours! We have hopes on you to revitalize the world and of course, with it, the United States and my country, India!

Brand Obama is sure flying high!

As expected, the US Government bails out CITIGROUP. They are extending a lifeline of $20 billion at a higher rate of interest than that given by the TARP plan. Also, they plan to absorb some of the bad assets provided CITI takes the initial $5 billion followed by the US Government followed by the FDIC (the total gurantee amount by the US Government, FDIC and Federal reserve might amount to almost $300+ billion). In return, the US Government gets preferred shares of CITI (NYSE: C). Bonuses of executives (executive compensation) would have to have the Government’s approval.

Let’s see how it pans out but allowing a 200 year old bank operating in 106 countries to fail would have proved catastrophic.

I saw the developments of the last week where CITI (NYSE: C) shares really fell to $3 a share and was in danger of going bust as public confidence was eroding sharply. CITI faces a real threat of a collapse.

There were two options open to the board: 1. Fire the CEO, Vikram Pandit as a sacrificial lamb, 2. split the company and sell the parts or whole of the company. Read the rest of this entry »

These two seem to be negatively correlated. As one goes up (read: Sachin’s highest test score – 12K-odd runs), the other goes down (8K-odd as on Black Friday – 24th Oct 2008).

What are the other alarming statistics of the Sensex? Read the rest of this entry »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression

If you look at the above link, some of the linkages are chilling. There was a liquidity crisis then too (forget what trigerred it), loans were hard to come by, banks collapsed like nine pins, unemployment soared and the US triggered it followed by a worldwide collapse (nearly 3/4 of a century ago when there was hardly any communication at today’s speed) that got rejuvenated only with the onset of the second world war. Read the rest of this entry »

Vikram Pandit, the CEO of Citigroup is not a happy man and is frankly red faced. Their exclusivity agreement with Wachovia notwithstanding, Wells Fargo made a counter bid for Wachovia and Citi ‘which never sleeps’ was really caught napping!

Now, Citigroup (NYSE: C) has filed a lawsuit against Wachovia for trying to sell itself to a higher bidder though they (Wachovia) had an exclusivity agreement with Citi. They have a quiet period for the next few days but the arguments will begin again. Its interesting to see whether Wachovia will be split with some geographic areas and branches going to Citi while the rest go to Wells Fargo.